The Beatitudes
Four contrasts are referred to in the gospel of today (The Beatitudes) – poverty/riches; hunger/fullness; sorrow/laughter; and defamation/commendation. Jesus upturns the values we would normally consider desirable. He asks us to realise that we are not living simply to be happy in this life, but we should ask ourselves the deeper value of our ways of life in the light of what we can bring with us to eternal life. The Christian view of life is that we should never forget that things cannot be brought with us into eternal life. Rather, we only take with us the things we have given away – even if it’s only a cup of water given in the name of Jesus (Matthew 10:42). God’s mercy means doing justice for the poorest and the most humiliated. Jesus meets families on his travels who are barely surviving and are defenceless against powerful landowners. We too see poor and powerless people today. Are we, his followers, defenders of the poor? What meaningful action will I do today to bring a smile to the lips of someone who is poor or broken? Christian living is neither an armchair occupation nor a spectator sport.
Volunteers Needed
We need volunteers to help out in several roles:
- Hospitality at Saturday evening's 6:15pm Mass needs someone to co-ordinate the rota and people to join the rota to provide tea, coffee etc. after Mass
- Preparation for 11:15am Mass. Please contact Andy by email or phone 07730 630876 for more information or if you would like to join the rota. Full training will be given
- Fire Marshals. We are looking for at least 9 people to be trained as Fire Marshals for the Parish, 3 for each weekend Mass. Ideally we would have a rota so holidays etc are covered. There will be fire extinguisher/marshal training on Tuesday 25th March at 10:45am in St Joseph's Church car park. Please email the office/ let Ruth know if you can volunteer for this role. Refreshments will be provided. If you would like lunch, please reserve by email
Church is open
For daily Mass
and private prayer
We would love to
welcome you in prayer.
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Mass Times
During the winter months, weekday Masses are held in the Parish Centre from Monday to Thursday. Friday Mass will be in the church as usual.
Note: This means there will be no online stream on these days.
Mass will be available online via YouTube from about 15 minutes before Mass starts (see below). Just click on the YouTube icon to connect.
Masses
| Mass | Online | |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | 9:30am | No |
| 11:15am | YouTube | |
| Monday | 9:30am | No |
| Tuesday | 9:30am | No |
| Wednesday | 10am | No |
| Thursday | 9:30am | No |
| Friday | 10am | YouTube |
| Saturday | 6:15pm | No |
Check the bulletin for Mass times at the other churches in our Holy Family Parish.
W.O.R.K.
Widows and Orphans in Rural Kenya is a registered “Not-for-Profit” charity (Reg. No. 1119959).
W.O.R.K. is dedicated to helping people to become self-sufficient by supporting education, training and healthcare for widows and orphans.
Mary-Jane Butler, founder of W.O.R.K. gave an update to the parish over the weekend of 25th and 26th January 2025. You can read what she had to say and see the pictures here.
Please donate online here if you can:
SVP Appeal
We are in need of adult and children bicycles for the asylum seekers. If you upgraded any bikes over Christmas, please consider donating your old bike to us. For more information, please contact the Parish Office. We are still collecting clothes, toys and toiletries. Please check the SVP noticeboard for meeting dates and other updates.
We are also always looking for hosts for homeless refugees. If you would like to talk about what might be involved in hosting please contact us on 07749 917134.
SVP Needs You
St Vincent de Paul (SVP) Maidenhead Treasurer and Secretary voluntary roles. SVP Maidenhead is looking to fill two important voluntary roles as soon as possible. Both the Treasurer and Secretary roles make a real difference in enabling SVP to run smoothly, including our monthly meetings on the first Monday of every month. Neither role is particularly demanding in terms of time commitment and a full handover from the current post holders will be arranged. Furthermore, individuals who may be interested are not required to become full members of SVP - associate membership can be arranged if preferred. If any parishioners are interested in either role, please contact Hilda on 07749 917134 or Peter on 07976 625813. Please also feel free to pass on this request to anyone you feel may be interested. The members of SVP Maidenhead would greatly appreciate any support in helping to fill these important role.
FOODSHARE
We are a collection point for Foodshare. Our collection area is just inside the porch doors, but if you leave food outside, out of hours (in a bag or other covering) the building is regularly checked. Foodshare are currently really in need of tinned vegetables and tinned meat, amongst all the regular donations.
We are currently helping over 120 families a week through food parcels and the Foodshare shop. We are running our "Holiday Hunger" program during the summer holidays. We provide breakfast food to schools and free lunches twice a week. There is more information on our website foodshare.charity. We are currently in need of financial donations. Donations can be made via the Foodshare website.
Welcome
Everyone at St Edmund Campion Parish in Maidenhead welcomes you to our Catholic community. Hopefully you will find all the information you are looking for - if not, please contact us and we will answer any questions you may have.
If you would like to know more about us and what we do, take a look at our Welcome Brochure. We look forward to meeting you soon.
The address of the Church and office is: 40a Altwood Road, Maidenhead. Berks. SL6 4PY. Details of how to find us are here.
Pastoral Area Update December 2024
Fr Liam has written another letter providing an update on the progress of the new Pastoral Area:
Dear Friend and Parishioner,
As we prepare for Christmas in this season of Advent, I wanted to update you on what’s been going on in our new expanded Parish formation, as part of the 10-year mission plan: 'You will be my Witnesses'.
I updated you in October on the response from the Bishop to our report to explain how we, the churches in Maidenhead, Twyford, Wargrave, Cookham and Culham, as well as the convent, want to come together to create the new Parish of Holy Family.
You will recall, one of our main proposals in our plan is that we launch our Holy Family Parish formally on Pentecost Sunday 8th June, 2025. This is still our intention. We may not have everything aligned by then (due to canonical law we have a lot of formal steps to take, which don’t affect the new parish), but it seems fitting that we come together and celebrate our new parish at Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, marking the beginning of Christianity as a new community, and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples to transform them as missionaries.
Read about what have we been doing since October in the latest letter here (December 2024).
You can read the previous letter here (October 2024) and the earlier letters are here (May 2024), here (February 2024), and here (November 2023).
Take a look at Parish plan presented to the Bishop here (August 2024).
Parish Priest
I am Liam Cummins and I come from Ireland. I'm the eldest of four children (three boys and one girl).
As a Mill Hill Missionary (millhillmissionaries.com), I have spent a good period of my adult life ministering in Africa, namely Cameroon and Kenya.
I was appointed to England to do Mission Animation (Missio and Mill Hill) for a number of Dioceses in 2012. I really enjoyed this work and it involved a good amount of travelling and meeting lots of people. Read more.
Parish Register
If you want to be added to the Parish Register, please see the priest.
Download, print and complete the Parish Registration Form.
If your details change, or you have an addition to the family, please contact the Parish Secretary to make sure that your entry is up to date and includes all your children.
Edmund Campion
"I have no more to say but to recommend your case and mine to Almighty God, the Searcher of Hearts, who sends us His grace, and sets us at accord before the day of payment, to the end we may at last be friends in heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten." Read more.
Pastoral Letter from Bishop Philip
The latest letter (October 2024 - Thou Shalt Not Kill) is available to read here or you can watch it on YouTube.
THOU SHALT NOT KILL
I write to you today because our country faces a lethal choice. I refer to the bill before Parliament to legalise what they call 'assisted dying.' I prefer to call it what it is: assisted suicide, helping someone to kill themselves.
"Thou Shalt not Kill" is an instinctive principle written into every human heart. It grounds the laws that govern every civilised society on earth. It is the teaching of all major religions, and it is fundamental to Christian morality and Catholic social teaching. …
All the Pastoral Letters from Bishop Philip are available on the Portsmouth Diocese website.
Closer to Christ Campaign
The Closer to Christ Campaign is a two-year initiative that will be delivered across the whole Diocese, with the am of raising £13.5million. Our vision for the Diocese is ‘bringing people close to Jesus Christ through his church’ and this project will help us realise our vision. This important endeavour has two key aims...
Going Into Hospital?
Upon admission, please state clearly that you are a Catholic Christian. If you want the Chaplain to visit you, you either need to complete the form in the Chapel, or speak to the Ward Sister in Charge.
The local Roman Catholic Church near Wexham Park Hospital is the Church of the Holy Redeemer, contact 01753 578328. In cases of emergency, call St Joseph’s Maidenhead on 01628 783988.